West Virginia Cemetery Preservation Association: Saml. Alexander Cemetery, Mason Co.

Cemetery Reading

Cemetery Name:	Samuel Alexander (a.k.a. Armstrong - Wilson or Upton)	Click on images to enlarge
County:	Mason
USGS Quad:	Robertsburg
Coordinates:	38.7041ºN -81.9465ºW
Maintained by:	unknown
Land owner:	Upton family
Date added to WVCPA register:	August 2005
Condition of cemetery**:	Excellent (February 2007)
Accessibility:	Relatively accessible - when the gate is unlocked. The driveway is well-laid with gravel and maintained by the local water department (there is a large water tower adjacent to the cemetery on the top of the hill). If the gate is locked, there is enough space to park one car between the gate and the road, and it is a bit of a hike (steep at times) up the hill that should not be attempted if you have a serious heart or breathing condition, or if you have difficulty walking on rough gravel and steep terrain. If able to drive in, the last little stretch of the road is quite steep, and there is ample room at the top of the hill to turn around.
Condition of cemetery as observed on the given date - may not be representative of care at other times of the year Scale: Excellent - Good - Fair - Poor - Abandoned**

Last Name:	First Name:	Born:	Died:	Inscription:	Photo:	Source:
	Henry H.	April 1812	September 1828	[Apr. AD 1812 - Sept. AD 1828]
	H.H.H.			[Footstone - headstone gone per 1970 reading]
Alexander	Anita			[Dau. of St___ and Bon___ (broken - no longer legible]
Alexander	Henry H.
Alexander	J.M.E.T.			[Son of S.T. Alexander]
Alexander	Mathew T.			[Son of Elizabeth - aged 7 mos (broken - no longer legible]
Alexander	Saml	17 May 1784	6 November 1874	[Samuel Alexander] "Aged 90 ys. 5 mo. 20 ds" [Husband and wife - shared stone] "To the memory of our parents" "Wife of Saml Alexander" "Aged 70 years"
Alexander	Elizabeth	1791	29 July 1861
Armstrong	John	1828	1900	[Husband and wife - shared stone] "His Wife"
Armstrong	Sallie Hall	1830	1901	[Husband and wife - shared stone] "His Wife"
Beatty	Mrs. Jane Ann	8 November 1812	27 June 1853	"Wife of James Beatty, M.D." "Aged 40 Ys 7 mo. 19 days" "Blessed are the dead who die in the Lord from henceforth, Yea, saith the Spirit, that they may rest from their labours; and their works do follow them. Rev. 14:13"
Kimberling	Davis	30 April 1809	5 December 1869	[His wife is buried at Jesse Hill Cemetery, on the other side of the Kanawha at Southside in Arbuckle District] "Farewell dear husband" "Aged 60Ys 7Ms 5Ds"
Mallory	E.J. Marvin	1870	26 October 1872	[Inscription barely visible - can almost only make out the "v" in Marvin at Feb. 2007 reading of the cemetery]
Patchell	John	26 March 1870	20 February 1871	"Son of J. & M. Patchell" "Aged 10 Mo & 25 Ds." "Err sin could blight or sorrow ___, Death came with friendly care, The sweet little babe to heaven conveyed, And bade him blosom there"
Patchell	John		26 November 1874	"Fare Well" "Aged 32 Ys 7 Mo. 4 Ds." "He has gone to a starry world above, and to a home of endless love. Yet oft I fancy he is nigh, and his voice comes quick on the ____ sigh, And I see his form in the ___ of night, arrayed in a garment of spotless white."
Payne	Elizabeth J.		29 August 1862	"Wife of Mat'w. T. Alexander, and afterward Wife of Jas. A. Payne" [Mother and son - shared stone? Possible they are separate stone, as both are broken] "Aged 1 yr. 8 mos. 1 d" ? "Err sin could blight or sorrow bear, Death came with friendly care, The opening bud to heaven conveyed, And bid it blossom there"
Payne	Joseph M.		September 1862 ?
Payne	James A.	16 June 1802	8 December 1880	"In Memory" "Our dear father" [Capt. James A. Payne, first blacksmith at Red House Shoals in Putnam Co., and captain of the "Enterprise", the first tow boat on the Kanawha River - See Charles Harper's account of Capt. Payne and other history of Red Rock and the Red House area at http://www.putnamlive.com/HISTORYRedRock.html]
Payne	Little Jimmie			"Son of James & Elizabeth Payne" "Aged 6 years 4 months 13 days"
Perry	David P.	27 April 1859	21 February 1860	"Son of P. & L.G. Perry" "Age 9 Mo 25 ds" "In life beloved, In death lamented"
Pickens	John R.	12 December 1876	27 December 1880	[Siblings - shared stone]
Pickens	Nellie M.	21 August 1879	15 January 1881	[Siblings - shared stone]
Runnion	Margareat Bias			[Wife of Robert Runnion - unmarked grave]
Sterrett	S. Alexander	3 April 1880	2 January 1888	[Son of S.A. & A.H. Sterrett - rest of inscription illegible]
Sterrett	George W.	20 December 1873	12 February 1880	"Son of S.A. & A.H. Sterrett" "Aged 6 Y. 1 M. 23 D." [on lower right corner of stone face, a maker's mark from a monument company in Gallipolis, OH]
Sterrett	Rhoda	16 October 1866	16 October 1866	"Our Little Rhoda"
Timms	Charles W., M.D.	21 May 1839	22 October 1866	"Assistant Surgeon F.A.C.S."
Timms	Jesse	31 May 1810	25 April 1868	"Aged 57 Ys 10 Ms 25 D" [Husband and wife - shared stone] "Our Parents" "Wife of Jesse Timms" " Aged 75 Ys. 10 M. 3 Ds."
Timms	Mary A.	21 January 1820	24 November 1895
Timms	Mary Ethel	26 February 1826	3 November 1826	[Aged 8 mos. 8 ds - dau. of J. & C. Timms]
Wears	George		11 February 1853
Wilson	Isabella Chilton, PH.D	21 September 1893	26 June 1971
Wilson	John Robert	1896	1944	[Mother and sons - shared stone] "Mother"
Wilson	Joseph Blackwell	1899	1914
Wilson	Isabella Armstrong	1869	1965
				[One slave burial to left of Wilson graves - unidentified]
[One row of unmarked, unidentified but obvious graves, per 1970 reading]

Comments:

Above: The view up the road, about a third of the way up the hill from Tribble Road

Above: The view east from the top of the hill at the water tower

(Click on the photos to see a larger image)

Dates or names in Red are not inscribed on the tombstone and have either been calculated based on death date or are as a result of research on the individual.

This is a very well-kept little cemetery located on the top of the hill just off Tribble Road overlooking the Kanawha River and the Leon airstrip. It sets just to the right and behind the tall blue water tank at the crest of the hill (before the pine trees grew up so large, there must have been a glorious view up and down the Kanawha River from here - you can catch glimpses of what it must have been like between the branches).

At the 2007 reading by WVCPA, the gate on the cemetery fence looked fairly new, and the fence itself had been recently repaired with a new run of barbed wire along the top. In addition to the relatively intact stone markers, there were many broken ones and a handful of simple fieldstone markers. All stones with any visible inscriptions are listed above with photos. While earlier published readings of this cemetery indicate that there were a number of unmarked graves, few to none were clearly visible in 2007, having been apparently filled in over the years as the cemetery was tended. There are, however, a number of open spaces that do not have markers (anymore?) that could well be additional graves.

When inquiring of this cemetery locally, you may find that folks in the neighborhood know of it as the "Upton Cemetery", though no Upton's are buried here (they are, however, the landowners per Feb. 2007). Apart from the burial of record for Geo. Wears in 1853, the earliest burials are those of the extended Samuel Alexander family, lending to the probably more common early name of the cemetery being the "Samuel Alexander Cemetery", rather than the more recent Armstrong and/or Wilson family name of the 20th century. Samuel Alexander's wife was Elizabeth Arbuckle, daughter of William and Catherine Madison Arbuckle who, along with at least three of their daughters and many of their descendants, are among the earliest buried in the Douglas-Craig Cemetery at the bottom of the hill between the railroad tracks and the river.

Updated: 07 September 2012